George Ernest Morrison (4 February 1862 – 30 May 1920), also known as
Chinese Morrison, was an
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
n
adventureAn adventure is an activity that comprises risky, dangerous or uncertain experiences. The term is more popularly used in reference to physical activities that have some potential for danger, such as skydiving, mountain climbing, and extreme sports...
r and
The TimesThe Times is a daily national newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register....
PekingBeijing is a metropolis in northern China and the capital of the People's Republic of China...
correspondent.
Early life
Morrison was born in
Geelong, VictoriaGeelong is the second largest city in the state of Victoria, Australia and is the largest regional centre in the state. It is a port city with an urban population of 160,991 people, and one of the largest provincial cities in Australia...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
. His father George Morrison (brother of
Alexander MorrisonAlexander Morrison was Headmaster of Scotch College, Melbourne, Australia, for 47 years.-Early life:Morrison was born Edinkillie, Morayshire, Scotland, sixth son of Donald Morrison, a farmer, and his wife Catherine née Fraser. Alexander was educated at the Elgin Academy and King's College,...
) was headmaster of
The Geelong CollegeThe Geelong College is an elite independent, co-educational, day and boarding school, located in Newtown, an inner-western suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia....
at which school the boy was educated. Before his tertiary education, he had tested his powers as a walker during a vacation, by walking from Geelong to
AdelaideAdelaide is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of South Australia, and is the fifth-largest city in Australia, with a population of more than 1.1 million. It is a coastal city situated on the eastern shores of Gulf St. Vincent, on the Adelaide Plains, north of the Fleurieu...
, a distance of about 600 miles (960 km). He initially studied at the
University of MelbourneThe University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia, and the oldest in Victoria...
. After passing his first year medicine he took a vacation trip down the
Murray RiverThe Murray River, or River Murray and sometimes informally referred to as the "Mighty Murray", is Australia's largest river. At in length, the Murray rises in the Australian Alps, draining the western side of Australia's highest mountains and, for most of its length, meanders across Australia's...
in a canoe from
Albury, New South WalesAlbury is a city in New South Wales, Australia, located on the Hume Highway on the northern side of the Murray River. It is also a Local Government Area, administered by Albury City Council...
to the mouth, a distance of 1650 miles (2,640 km), covered in 65 days. Failing in his next examinations he shipped on a vessel trading to the South Sea islands, discovered some of the evils of the
kanakaKanakas were workers from various Pacific Islands employed under varying conditions in various British colonies, such as British Columbia , Fiji and Queensland in the 19th and early 20th centuries...
traffic, and wrote articles on it which appeared in
The AgeThe Age is a broadsheet daily newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. The Age was founded by three Melbourne businessmen, the brothers John Cooke and Henry Cooke who had arrived from New Zealand in the 1840s, and Walter Powell...
and had some influence on the eventual suppression of it. He next visited
New GuineaNew Guinea, located north of Australia, is the world's second largest island. It became separated from the Australian mainland when the area now known as the Torres Strait flooded after the last glacial period. The name Papua has long been associated with the island...
and did part of the return journey on a Chinese junk. Landing at
Normanton, QueenslandNormanton is a small cattle town in the northwest of the state of Queensland, Australia, just south of the Gulf of Carpentaria, on the Norman River. The town's population is 1,100, 60 per cent of whom are Indigenous Australians. The town is one terminus of the isolated Normanton - Croydon Railway,...
at the end of 1882 Morrison decided to walk to
MelbourneMelbourne is the capital city and most populous city of the State of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne city centre is the anchor of the larger geographical area and statistical division known as the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area – of which Melbourne is...
. He was not quite 21, he had no horses or camels and was unarmed, but carrying his swag and swimming or wading the rivers in his path, he walked the 2043 miles (3270 km) in 123 days. No doubt the country had been much opened up since the days of Burke and Wills, but the journey was nevertheless a remarkable feat, which stamped Morrison as a great natural bushman and explorer. He arrived at Melbourne on 21 April 1883 to find that during his journey
Thomas McIlwraithSir Thomas McIlwraith KCMG was for many years the dominant figure of colonial politics in Queensland. He was Premier of Queensland from 1877 to 1883, again in 1888, and for a third time in 1893...
, the premier of
QueenslandQueensland is a state of Australia that occupies the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory to the west, South Australia to the south-west and New South Wales to the south. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
, had annexed part of New Guinea, and was vainly endeavouring to get the support of the British government for his action.
New Guinea
The Age decided to send Morrison to New Guinea as its special correspondent, but this was not announced at the time, and Morrison, on being interviewed in
SydneySydney is the largest city in Australia, and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney has a metropolitan area population of approximately 4.34 million and an area of approximately 12,000 square kilometres. Its inhabitants are called Sydneysiders, and Sydney is often called "the Harbour City"...
, gave the impression that he was going to see what were the prospects of forming a Presbyterian mission station. He sailed from
Cooktown, QueenslandCooktown is the northernmost town on the east coast of Australia, located at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland....
in a small
luggerA lugger is a type of small sailing vessel setting lugsails on two or more masts and perhaps lug topsails.-Defining the rig:The lugsail is an evolved version of the classical square sail. In both rigs, the upper side of the sail is attached to a spar, the yard, which is hoisted up the mast by a...
and arrived at
Port Moresby||-||-||-||}Port Moresby , or Pot Mosbi in Tok Pisin, population 255,000 , is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea . The city is located on the shores of the Gulf of Papua, on the southeastern coast of the island of New Guinea.The area on which the city was founded has been inhabited by...
after a stormy passage. On 24 July 1883 Morrison with a small party started with the intention of crossing to
Dyke Acland BayDyke Acland Bay is a waterway in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada. Located off southern Bathurst Island, the bay is an arm of Parry Channel.It is named after Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 10th Baronet....
100 miles (160 km) away. Much high mountain country barred the way, and it took 38 days to cover 50 miles. The natives became hostile, and about a month later Morrison was struck by two spears and nearly killed. The only thing possible was to retrace their steps, Morrison was strapped to a horse and, not having to cut the track as they went,
Port Moresby||-||-||-||}Port Moresby , or Pot Mosbi in Tok Pisin, population 255,000 , is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea . The city is located on the shores of the Gulf of Papua, on the southeastern coast of the island of New Guinea.The area on which the city was founded has been inhabited by...
was reached in days. Here Morrison received medical attention but it was more than a month before he reached the hospital at Cooktown. In spite of his misfortune Morrison had penetrated farther into New Guinea than any previous white man. Much the better for a week in hospital Morrison went on to Melbourne, but he still carried the head of a spear in his body and no local surgeon was anxious to probe for it in the condition of surgery in that day.
Graduation and further travels
Morrison's father decided to send the young man to John Chiene, professor of surgery at Edinburgh university, the operation was successful, and Morrison took up his medical studies again, at
EdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland. It is the second largest Scottish city, after Glasgow, and the seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas....
. He graduated M.B. Ch.M. on 1 August 1887.
After his graduation Morrison travelled extensively in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the West Indies, and
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
, where he became medical officer at the Rio Tinto mine. He then proceeded to
MoroccoMorocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 32 million and an area just under . Its capital is Rabat, and its largest city is Casablanca. Morocco has a coast on the Atlantic Ocean that reaches past the Strait of Gibraltar into the...
, became physician to the Shereef of Wazan, and did some travelling in the interior. Study at
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
under Dr Charcot followed before he returned to Australia in 1890, and for two years was resident surgeon at the
Ballarat, VictoriaBallarat is a city in Victoria, Australia, and Victoria's largest inland city. It is well-known for its history and heritage and is a major regional centre in the Goldfields region of Victoria....
hospital.
Far East
Leaving the hospital in May 1893 he went to the Far East, and in February 1894 began a journey from
ShanghaiShanghai is the largest city in China, and one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, with over 20 million people. Located on China's central eastern coast at the mouth of the Yangtze River, the city is administered as a municipality of the People's Republic of China with province-level...
to Rangoon. He went partly by boat up the
Yangtze RiverThe Yangtze River, or Chang Jiang , Tibetan: Bri-chu, is the longest river in China and Asia, and the third-longest in the world, after the Nile in Africa and the Amazon....
and rode and walked the remainder of the 3000 miles (4800 km). He completed the journey in 100 days at a total cost of £18, which included the wages of two or three Chinese servants whom he picked up and changed on the way as he entered new districts. He was quite unarmed and then knew hardly more than a dozen words of Chinese. But he was willing to conform to and respect the customs of the people he met, and everywhere was received with courtesy.
After his arrival at Rangoon, Morrison went to Calcutta where he became seriously ill with remittant fever and nearly died. On recovering he went to
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, presented a thesis to the
University of EdinburghThe University of Edinburgh founded in 1582, is an internationally renowned centre for teaching and research in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. It is the sixth university to be established in the British Isles, making it one of the ancient universities of the United Kingdom.The university is amongst the...
on "Heredity as a Factor in the Causation of Disease", and received his M.D. degree in August 1895. He was introduced to Moberly Bell, editor of
The Times, who appointed him a special correspondent in the east. In November he went to
SiamThe Kingdom of Thailand is an independent country that lies in the heart of Southeast Asia.It is bordered to the north by Laos and Burma, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and Burma...
where there were Anglo-French difficulties, and travelled much in the interior. Morrison was very doubtful about his first communication to
The Times and showed it to a friend who, in a letter to
The Times about the time of Morrison's death, spoke of it as a perfect diagnosis of the then troubled condition of China, masterly in its phrasing, luminous in its broad conception of the general situation". His reports attracted much attention both in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
and
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. From Siam he crossed into southern China and at
YunnanYunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately 394,000 square kilometers . The capital of the province is Kunming...
was again seriously ill. Curing himself he made his way through Siam to Bangkok, a journey of nearly a thousand miles. In his interesting account of his journey,
An Australian in China, published in 1895, while speaking well of the personalities of the many missionaries he met, he consistently belittled their success in obtaining converts. In after years he regretted this, as he felt he had given a wrong impression by not sufficiently stressing the value of their social and medical work.
The Times correspondent
In February 1897
The Times made Morrison resident correspondent at Peking, and he took up his residence there in the following month. Unfortunately, his lack of knowledge in the Chinese language meant that he could not verify his stories and there is now much evidence to suggest that some of his reports contained both bias and deliberate lies against China. There was much Russian activity in Manchuria at this time and in June Morrison went to
VladivostokVladivostok is Russia's largest port city on the Pacific Ocean and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai. It is situated at the head of the Golden Horn Bay not far from Russia's border with China and North Korea...
. He travelled over a thousand miles to Stretensk and then across Manchuria to Vladivostok again. He reported to
The Times that Russian engineers were making preliminary surveys from Kirin towards Port Arthur (
LüshunkouLüshunkou is a district in the municipality of Dalian, Liaoning province, China. Also called Lüshun City or Lüshun Port, it was formerly known as both Port Arthur and Ryojun....
). On the very day his communication arrived in London, 6 March 1898,
The Times received a telegram from Morrison to say that Russia had presented a five-day ultimatum to China demanding the right to construct a railway to Port Arthur. This was a triumph for The Times and its correspondent, but he had also shown prophetic insight in another phrase of his dispatch, when he stated that "the importance of Japan in relation to the future of Manchuria cannot be disregarded". Germany had occupied Kiao-chao towards the end of 1897, and a great struggle for political preponderacy was going on. Morrison in his telegrams showed "the prescience of a statesman and the accuracy of an historian" (
The Times, 21 May 1920).
In January 1899 he went to Siam and was able to point out that there was no need for French interference in that country, which was quite capable of governing itself. Later in the year he went to England, and early in 1900 paid a short visit to his relations in Australia. Returning to the east by way of Japan he then visited Korea before returning to Peking. The
Boxer UprisingThe Boxer Rebellion, more properly called the Boxer Uprising, or the Righteous Harmony Society Movement in Chinese, was a violent anti-imperialism, anti-Christian movement by the "Righteous Fists of Harmony,” Yihe tuan义和团 or Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists in China , between 1898 and 1901...
broke out soon after, and during the siege of the legations from June to August Morrison as an acting-lieutenant showed great courage, always ready to volunteer for every service of danger. He was superficially wounded in July but was erroneously reported as killed. He was afterwards able to read his highly laudatory obituary notice, which occupied two columns of
The Times on 17 July 1900. After a siege of 55 days, the legations were relieved on 14 August 1900 by an army of various nationalities under General Gaselee. The army then ransacked much of the palaces in Peking, with Morrison taking part in the looting, making off with silks, furs, porcelain and bronzes. There was great uncertainty regarding the future of China in the following months, and through
The Times Morrison managed to depict a skewed picture before the British public. While Russia and Japan united in opposing any dismemberment of China, the country was nevertheless punished by the imposition of a heavy indemnity. When the
Russo-Japanese WarThe Russo-Japanese War or the Manchurian Campaign in some English sources, was a conflict that grew out of the rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
broke out on 10 February 1904 Morrison became a correspondent with the Japanese army. He was present at the entry of the Japanese into Port Arthur (now
LüshunkouLüshunkou is a district in the municipality of Dalian, Liaoning province, China. Also called Lüshun City or Lüshun Port, it was formerly known as both Port Arthur and Ryojun....
) early in 1905, and represented
The Times at the
Portsmouth, New HampshirePortsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire in the United States. It is the fourth-largest community in the county, with a population of 20,784 at the 2000 census...
, U.S.A., peace conference. In 1907 he crossed China from Peking to the French border of
TonkinTonkin , also spelled Tongkin, Tonquin or Tongking, is the northernmost part of Vietnam, south of China's Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces, east of northern Laos, and west of the Gulf of Tonkin. Locally, it is known as Bắc Kỳ, meaning "Northern Region"...
, and in 1910 rode from Honan across Asia to
AndijanAndijan is the fourth-largest city in Uzbekistan, and the capital of the Andijan Province. It is located in the east of the country, at , in the Fergana Valley, near the border with Kyrgyzstan on the Andijan-Say River...
in Russian
TurkestanTurkestan, spelled also as Turkistan and Turkharistan is a region in Central Asia, which today is largely inhabited by Turkic peoples. It has been referenced in many Turkic and Persian sagas and is an integral part of Turan...
, a journey of 3750 miles (6,000 km) which was completed in 175 days. From Andijan he took train to St Peterburg, and then travelled to London arriving on 29 July 1910. He returned to China and, when plague broke out in
ManchuriaManchuria is a historical name given to a vast geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria either falls entirely within China, or is divided between China and Russia...
, went to
Harbin' , is a sub-provincial city and the capital of the Heilongjiang Province in Northeast China. It lies on the southern bank of the Songhua River...
, where a great Chinese physician, Dr Wu Lien-teh, succeeded in staying the spread of a mortal sickness which seemed to threaten the whole world. Morrison did his part by publishing a series of articles advocating the launching of a modern scientific public health service in China. When the Chinese revolution began in 1911 Morrison took the side of the revolutionaries and the Chinese republic was established early in 1912.
Political advisor
In August Morrison resigned his position on
The Times to become political adviser to the Chinese government at a salary equivalent to £4000 a year, and immediately went to London to assist in floating a Chinese loan of £10,000,000. In China during the following years he had an anxious time advising, and endeavouring to deal with the political intrigues that were continually going on. He visited Australia again in December 1917 and returned to Peking in February 1918. He represented China during the peace discussions at
VersaillesVersailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial center...
in 1919, but his health began to give way and he retired to England well aware that he had only a short time to live. He died on 30 May, 1920 at
SidmouthSidmouth is a small town on the English Channel coast in Devon, South West England. The town lies at the mouth of the River Sid in the East Devon district, south east of Exeter. It has a population of about 15,000, of whom 40% are over 65.....
,
DevonDevon is a large county in England. The county is also referred to as Devonshire, although that is an unofficial name, rarely used inside of the county itself and often indicating a traditional or historical context. The county shares borders with Cornwall to the west and Dorset and Somerset to...
and is buried there.
Personal life
Morrison had married in 1912 Jennie Wark Robin (1889 - 1923), his former secretary, who survived him for only three years. His three sons,
IanIan Ernest McLeavy Morrison was an Australian journalist and war correspondent for The Times. He was one of the first journalists to be killed in the Korean War.-Early career:...
(1913-1950), Alastair Gwynne (1915 - ), and Colin (1917 - 1990), all grew to manhood and graduated at the
University of CambridgeThe University of Cambridge , located in the City of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world and the fourth oldest in Europe...
.
Legacy
Although Morrison did not speak Chinese, he was an avid collector of Chinese books and in 1917 Morrison's remarkable library, which contained the largest number of books on China ever collected, was sold to businessman Baron Iwasaki of
Tokyo, officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan and is located on the eastern side of the main island Honshū. The twenty-three special wards of Tokyo, each governed as a city, cover the area that was once the city of Tokyo in the eastern part of the prefecture, totaling over 8 million people....
for £35,000 in 1917, with the proviso that serious students should have access to it. This subsequently became the foundation of the
Oriental LibraryThe , or "Oriental Library", is Japan's largest Asian studies library and one of the world's five largest.It had its beginnings in 1917 when Baron Iwasaki, former third President of the Mitsubishi Company, purchased the vast collection of China-related publications of Australian adventurer,...
in Tokyo. In 1932 the inaugural "George Ernest Morrison Lecture in Ethnology" was delivered at
CanberraCanberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth largest Australian city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory, south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
, a fund having been established by Chinese residents of Australia to provide for an annual lecture in Morrison's memory.
Morrison was a tall, rather ungainly man, who apparently did not know what fear was. His life was a crowded scene of adventure, but through all his adventures he carried an inquiring mind that gathered experience and knowledge from everything that happened. It is therefore ironic that
Sir Robert HartSir Robert Hart, 1st Baronet GCMG , born in 1835 in Armagh, Ireland was a British consular official in China, who served from 1863-1911 as the second Inspector General of China's Imperial Maritime Custom Service .-Early life:Robert Hart was born into a devout Methodist family in Dungannon Street,...
, who was in Peking at the same time as Morrison and witnessed his conduct and read his inaccurate newspaper reports, regarded him as a lazy, self-indulgent man, intolerant, racist, and unprincipled.
See also
- Anglo-Chinese relations
British-Chinese relations , also known as Sino-British relations and Anglo-Chinese relations, refers to the interstate relations between China and the United Kingdom. Although on opposing sides of the Cold War, both countries were allies during World War II, and are members of the UN...
- Ernest Satow who met Morrison many times in Peking, 1900-06
Further reading
- Lo Hui-min, The Correspondence of G.E. Morrison - 2 vols, (Cambridge U. Press, 1976).
- Clune, Frank, Sky High to Shanghai - (Angus & Robertson, Sydney 1941).
External links
- J. S. Gregory, ' Morrison, George Ernest (Chinese) (1862 - 1920)', Australian Dictionary of Biography
The Australian Dictionary of Biography is a multi-volume project published by Melbourne University Press.The ADB project has been operating since 1957 with staff located at the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University...
, Vol. 10, MUP, 1986, pp593-596.
- Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko
The , or "Oriental Library", is Japan's largest Asian studies library and one of the world's five largest.It had its beginnings in 1917 when Baron Iwasaki, former third President of the Mitsubishi Company, purchased the vast collection of China-related publications of Australian adventurer,...
Rare Books: 27 rare books selected from the collection of Dr. George Ernest Morrison.